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Aviation History
1968
1968 - 0076.PDF
78 FLIGHT International, 18 January AIR TRANSPORT . . . months of 1967. Whereas Pan American and TWA together increased their number of seats by 26.5 per cent and their passengers by 21.3 per cent in the first nine months of 1967 as compared with the same period of 1966, BOAC managed increases of only 1 per cent and 0.7 per cent respectively. For all other IATA carriers, the figures were 19.2 and 16.0 per cent. The US carriers appear to have found rather less opposition from Britain than from the other European airlines, having increased their participation in the US-UK market but suffered a slight decline in the US-Continental Europe market. Their share of the most important route—London-New York—has, as Caledonian points out, shown a sharp increase amounting to almost 10 per cent since 1963, with a total (in spite of the TWA strike) of 39.4 per cent in 1966. In the Europe-Canada market, BOAC's growth has again lagged behind that of its competitors, having carried 26.8 per cent of the passengers in 1963, and 24.0 per cent in 1967. As in the USA traffic, BOAC has had consistently high load factors, usually around 10 per cent higher than the average for other carriers, and this has had an adverse effect on the share of the market which it has been able to capture. Against this background, somewhat gloomy for Britain, the two independents are seeking to step up the frequencies. "It is a well-known axiom of public transport service," says British Eagle, "that increased frequency always generates and attracts more traffic." Weekly frequencies between the UK and the USA last summer stood at 130 for US carriers, and 56 for BOAC. The additional services proposed by British Eagle, if commenced in that year, would have produced a total for the UK of 70 services, still far short of the US carriers' total. Lest anyone should doubt the closeness of the correlation between market participation and frequency offered, Caledonian has submitted data to the ATLB showing that for almost every operator on the North Atlantic the percentage which it can claim of the total flights of all carriers is very nearly the same as the percentage which it carries of the total passengers. BOAC is the only one with a markedly higher proportion of the total passengers than of the total number of services. Not only would British Eagle complement BOAC's North Atlantic services with extra frequencies; the airline wants to leave BOAC free to concentrate on the introduction of 747s and SSTs, to which it would offer parallel subsonic flights. It also stresses the need for Britain to be represented by at least two carriers, commercially independent from, and com- peting with each other. Another carrier would also help BOAC to meet the demands of increased seasonal peaking which is occurring in scheduled traffic on the North Atlantic. The cases presented by Caledonian and British Eagle to the ATLB axe thus broadly similar. But as well as taking an aggressive stand against BOAC, both carriers are objecting to each other's proposals. Caledonian is not only stressing its past performance and experience in the North Atlantic charter market—15,000 passengers carried in 1963, and 50,000 in 1967 —but also its close affiliations with Scotland. Here it has m •mind the part that ethnic associations play when a passenger selects an airline. British Eagle is also an experienced North Atlantic carrier; it carried almost 26,000 passengers on these routes in 1966, and, dating from the Cunard Eagle days, has a long-standing association with the Caribbean area. The cases will be closely argued before the ATLB, but in the present political climate it would be a rash man who could predict that anyone bar BOAC will end up any the better off. EDWARDS MAKES A START AS forecast last week by Sensor, the Edwards Committee is to make a number of overseas visits in the course of its inquiry. The first was last week, January 10-11, to Switzerland. The committee had talks both with the Swiss civil aviation authori- ties and with Swissair. It is planned also to make a similar visit to France; and in February the whole committee is planning to visit the United States and Canada, probably for a period of four days. This will be one of two visits to North America. A programme of discussions with the civil aviation authorities of the two countries is being arranged by the British Embassy in Washington and the Canadian High Commissioner in London. The committee intends to visit the USA and Canada again later in the year to talk to the leading airlines. Of particular interest is the committee's decision also to visit Australia, to examine at first-hand that country's unusual air transport licensing system, which seems to have solved the problem of independents versus state corporations in a success- ful way. No date has been decided for this trip and it is certainly not likely to be before February. It is hoped that the whole committee will go. The response to the committee's request for written evidence has been pretty heavy. In fact all but one or two of the 50 or more airlines, organisations and individuals approached have promised replies. There has also been quite a large response already—from about 20 parties—to the committee's general public invitation to submit evidence. The real bulk of the written testimony is yet to come, and most of this is expected in the next month or so. The real hard oral interviews have not yet taken place, or indeed planned in detail. There have been a number of preliminary discussions with BOAC, BEA. British Eagle, British United, Caledonian and others (including Monarch). The committee has visited or is visiting the "Big Four" airlines (BOAC, BEA, Eagle and BUA), and has visited the British Airports Authority (Heathrow), BEA's West London Air Terminal (where their members saw the computer system) and the BEA and BOAC bases at Heathrow. The committee is also visiting British Eagle at Heathrow next Monday, and has spent a day looking at British United at Gatwick — having travelled there, as normal passengers would, by the Victoria line railway. The chairman. Sir Ronald Edwards, has made a number of other visits on his own account, accompanied by the secretary. He has, for example, been to Newcastle, Wools- Saturn Airways, the US supplemental, have taken delivery of the first of two DC-8-6IFs. The second is scheduled for delivery this month. The -61F is being used initially on MAC service but from June both aircraft, with 250-seat layouts, will be used for commercial transatlantic charters
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